Human errors occur all too frequently in medical practice settings'sometimes because safety standards are not followed and enforced but also because production pressures often overwhelm the competence of healthcare professionals. One sobering recent report claimed that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Hoping to reverse this disturbing trend but wondering why it is that things usually go well despite errors, John D. Banja's Patient Safety Ethics lays out a model that advocates vigilance, mindfulness, compliance, and humility as core ethical principles of patient safety.
Arguing that the safe provision of healthcare is one of the most fundamental moral obligations of clinicians, Banja surveys the research literature on harm-causing medical errors to explore the ethical foundations of patient safety and to reduce the severity and frequency of medical error. Drawing on contemporary scholarship on quality improvement, risk management, and medical decision making, Banja also relies on a novel source of information to illustrate patient safety ethics: medical malpractice suits.
Providing professional perspective with insights from prominent patient safety experts, Patient Safety Ethics identifies hazard pitfalls and suggests concrete ways to improve patient safety through an ethically cultivated program of ""hazard awareness."" A key text for medical practitioners, ethicists, and regulators, along with scholars and students of bioethics, patient safety, and medical malpractice law.
Preface Part I. Patient Safety and Ethical Theory: The Significance of Vigilance, Mindfulness, Compliance, and Humility Chapter 1. Ethical Foundations of Patient Safety Chapter 2. Vigilance Interview with Richard Cook Chapter 3. Mindfulness Interview with Pat Croskerry Chapter 4. Compliance Chapter 5. Humility Interview with June Price Tangney Part II. Some Theoretical Musings on Harm and Risk, Medical Error, and Medical Malpractice Litigation as an Ethical Exercise Chapter 6. Some Theoretical Aspects of Vigilance and Risk Acceptability Chapter 7. Fifty Shades of Error Interview with Fran Charney Chapter 8. The Standard of Care and Medical Malpractice Law as Ethical Achievement Interview with Tommy Malone Chapter 9. The Present and the Future Interview with Bob Wachter References Index
